Middle School Discipline Practices

This chapter discusses the challenges middle schools face when dealing with extreme behavior issues and provides real-world examples of one administrator's experience in the face of these situations. Looking at the newest trends in discipline strategies, including those of social-emotional learning and restorative practices, the authors provide an overview of their school-wide implementation. The authors also provide recommendations for educators who are facing similar situations and how to develop practices that support lasting cultural changes within schools and districts.

Why Interventions to Influence Adolescent Behavior Often Fail but Could Succeed

We provide a developmental perspective on two related issues: (a) why traditional preventative school-based interventions work reasonably well for children but less so for middle adolescents and (b) why some alternative approaches to interventions show promise for middle adolescents. We propose the hypothesis that traditional interventions fail when they do not align with adolescents’ enhanced desire to feel respected and be accorded status; however, interventions that do align with this desire can motivate internalized, positive behavior change. We review examples of promising interventions that (a) directly harness the desire for status and respect, (b) provide adolescents with more respectful treatment from adults, or (c) lessen the negative influence of threats to status and respect. These examples are in the domains of unhealthy snacking, middle school discipline, and high school aggression. Discussion centers on implications for basic developmental science and for improvements to youth policy and practice.